I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting about the final season of Girls with Jon Glaser, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and director Richard Shepard at the 2017 ATX Festival. We chatted about what they think the future holds for their characters, their favorite memories from set, and why you should buy the Season 6 DVD. Check it out below.

What do you think the future holds for your characters, 10 years from now, where do you think they are?

Ebon: Turning it around, yeah, yeah, still playing music. But as a weekend warrior. Small catering business.

Jon: I think Laird cleans up his act. He gets a job as a manager at Forever 21, he’s working the floor. The less jokey, maybe like Home Depot, cleans up his act, he’s got a child and he really wants to be responsible and he focuses, yeah. That seems pretty realistic. I would buy that.

Richard: It’s adorable, both of you. I’m so happy for both your characters. I was worried for both of you guys and now I feel like I can sleep at night.

Richard, for you directing so many episodes of the series, what kind of sticks out about this project for you in comparison to your other work?

Richard: Well, I mean to be in the presence of working with Lena is a thing I’ll never forget, it’s one of the great gifts of my entire career. I mean she’s really something else. She created a work environment that was so creative for the directors on the show and for the cast and for everyone, it was just a very unique thing to see her mind work on a daily basis. To be talking creatively with someone who’s got so many amazing views and ideas. By the time the sixth season happened, I mean, this summer that we’re not making “Girls” is really sad… I was just in New York, I’m like, I can’t believe we’re not shooting, it’s been such a pleasure every year being able to work in that environment.

Having worked on the series and one of the things that I love so much about it was just what a raw look at being a young female, it was just so truthful and so honest. Do you guys feel like you learned anything about girls or females working on this project that maybe you didn’t know before?

Richard: Just write, long pause.

Long pause.

Jon: Long masculine pause.

Richard: Ebon’s going to come out with something, I feel like he’s formulating a thought.

Ebon: No, I mean, it’s similar … I just learned about different way to work … that you can work on a TV show in a very free and kind of collaborative way. I don’t feel like I learned … I live with a woman and two girls so I’m like …

Pretty involved in it.

Ebon: I’m all about vaginas all day long.

Richard: I think the question is really not so much about girls, for me, I learned about … working so closely with a generation that is different than mine. I always came at things as a director looking for the emotional stuff and think Lena at first was holding back on that a little bit and that was a generational thing and so we sort of … whenever we did something together, these would be debates. And Lena’s very emotional obviously, but just in terms of the way she approached a scene, I would always come in … for me, even if it was the silliest, funniest thing, like from an emotionally honest place as much as I could.

But to see and be around people, so many people who are in their 20s and doing unbelievably great stuff was sort of like, I went from being like, “I can’t believe I’m the oldest person.” To be like, “Wow this is awesome.” I’m getting so much creative energy from that.

Favorite memory or favorite episode or favorite kind of moment working on the series, do you have anything that kind of sticks out to you as your go to moment from the show?

Jon: I mean for me, my first episode, I just really like that one a lot. I thought it was especially great, even as an overall episode it was really good. There were so many fun moments for the character and then one I’ve talked about before, is that when Gabby, when her character was pregnant, that was really fun to shoot. I mean, it was a very physical scene and it was really compelling and the fact that she was really pregnant and she was naked and wet and I was genuinely nervous about picking her up and not dropping her. But that was a highlight, for sure, it was a great scene also just to watch when it was done. But filming was really fun.

Ebon: I’m trying to go through it. I don’t know, there’s too many to really even get into …

Richard: Two of my biggest on set laughs happened … I only got to work with Jon once on only one episode, really. But there’s a shot where they’re comforting Hannah and you start making out … do you remember this? You’re holding Hannah and you guys start making out and Hannah’s just so miserable being in this clutch. I laughed so hard at that and even in editing, I would just kind of keep saying, “Can we just watch it again?” Keep watching it. And then we did something where Desi shows up at the performance theater thing …

Ebon: Kitty Genovese.

Richard: And shows up with his motorcycle helmet and he’s so excited and that was another situation where I think we did 13 takes and we had it after the third one. But we were just like, this is just too much fun –
let’s just film 10 more takes!

Ebon: That was another scene where Hannah was like the victim of unwanted physical intimacy …

Richard: It’s true! I like that, I didn’t even realize that, it was true, she’s suffering while two people are connecting.

Jon: I wish we would have gone for more on the kiss. I remember the moment when we were done feeling like, oh we should just one more just really mash …

With so many shows kind of reuniting here from the past and panels that they’re doing for it, which show would you most like to see at ATX, come back and do a reunion panel, what would totally nerd out over?

Jon: For me a dream thing would be to hear all the Looney Tunes writers and directors, I would love to just hear stories about how they created their scripts. I mean, just the volume of ideas and all the incredible comedy and the animation, just so old and so stunning. I would love to see that.

Richard: When I was a kid, my favorite show was “The Odd Couple” with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. I think they’re both dead or close to dead, so I don’t think a reunion would happen nor I don’t even know people even remember the show.

Jon: There should be a ghost festival.

Richard: I like that.

Jon: It’s just all ghosts doing panels.

Richard: Holograms.

Jon: That would be so weird.

HBO’s Girls: The Complete Sixth Season is available on Digital Download now and Blu-ray & DVD July 25th! Why should you pick it up? Hear it straight from these guys below!

Emma LogginsEmma Loggins is the Editor in Chief of FanBolt. As an internationally recognized "Geek Girl", Emma updates daily on the latest entertainment news, her opinions on current happenings in the media, screening/filming opportunities, inside scoops and more. She’s been writing on the world of geekdom and pop culture since 2002 and is also considered to be one of the top Atlanta bloggers and influencers!

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